A South Hampstead church will host a dinner for a neighbouring synagogue, in one of many events taking place across Camden, Barnet and Haringey
A South Hampstead church will host a Holocaust Memorial Day Friday night dinner – as a Jewish community has been left without a home while their synagogue is refurbished.
The Reverend Paul Nicholson of St Saviour’s Vicarage on Eton Road invited South Hampstead Synagogue, which is based in Eton Villas, to hold their event in the church, which is also open to his congregants, in a show of inter-faith unity.
South Hampstead Synagogue is hosting a Shabbat dinner with Eve Kugler, a Holocaust survivor who will be speaking about her experiences.
Eve was born in Germany and lived through Kristallnacht as a child, before her parents moved her to a children’s home in France, where they hoped she would be safer.
She eventually sailed to America when she was 11 in 1941 and went on to write the book Shattered Crystals.
“I didn’t feel whole,” she recalled.
“Hitler robbed me of my memory and he robbed me of my childhood.
“I knew that things happened before I turned 11 and I used to look over my shoulder, looking for that child. Where was she?”
In another Camden event to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, the Jewish Museum are hosting a witness testimony talk by survivor Eva Schloss on Sunday.
Eva Schloss will speak about her survival and loss, as well as her moving discovery of her brother’s paintings and poems.
Born in Vienna in 1929, Eva’s family fled to Belgium, before moving to Amsterdam, where the family spent two years in hiding, Eva and her mother in one house, and her father and brother in another.
Eva’s brother, Heinz, would write poetry and paint while they were in captivity.
The family were betrayed and deported to Auschwitz in Poland.
Eva and her mother survived, but her brother and father tragically died.
Eva will talk about how she discovered more than 30 of her brother’s paintings, hidden beneath the floorboards, when she went back to visit the house in Amsterdam.
Eva’s mother married Otto Frank, the widowed father of the diarist Anne Frank, in 1953.
? The South Hampstead Synagogue Holocaust Memorial event is at 6pm on Friday at Saviors Church Hall, Eton Road. Booking is required. Visit: myus.theus.org.uk/events/32681/holocaust-memorial-day-friday-night-dinner-with-eve-kugler/. For more information about the Jewish Museum event, visit jewishmuseum.org.uk/whats-on?item=599
? Camden Council is hosting a Holocaust Memorial Day event on Friday, with Lord Alfred Dubs, who arrived as a child refugee on the Kindertransport. Lord Dubs’ amendment to the Immigration Act means unaccompanied refugee children can offered safe refuge in the UK. The programme starts at 8.45am and finishes at 9.50am at The British Library Theatre, 96 Euston Road. Booking is required as space is limited. Please RSVP to mayor@camden.gov.uk or telephone 020 7974 5130.
? Haringey Council will be hosting its event on the Sunday, accompanied by Haringey’s Young Musicians, with a contribution from Catherine West, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green. It will take place from 2-4pm at Bruce Castle Museum. A cherry tree will be planted in the Holocaust Memorial Garden, followed by prayers led by Fr Simon Clarke, Rabbi David Mason and Mr Alli.
? Barnet Council is hosting its ceremony on Sunday at 1pm at the Rickett Quadrangle in Middlesex University. For more information, call 020 8359 2652 or email mayor@barnet.gov.uk.
? The Finchley Road Jewish community centre JW3 event on Friday will be themed around the question, “How can life go on?” as set by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. Speakers will include Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, novelist Howard Jacobson and Holocaust scholar Professor Yehuda Bauer. MPs Mike Freer and Tulip Siddiq will speak alongside readings by Janet Suzman. There will be music by Robert Max and Zoe Solomon. Visit jw3.org.uk/event/holocaust-memorial-day-how-can-life-go to book.
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